The CountyMental Hospital, also known as St Edward's Hospital, was built in the late 1890s by the Staffordshire County Lunacy Committee to relieve overcrowding in other institutions. The hospital was located on a spur of land overlooking the River Churnet and the Caldon Canal at Cheddleton Heath just north of Cheddleton. Designed by the London architects Giles, Gough and Trollope, construction began in 1895. To assist in construction of the hospital the contractors, W Brown & Son, laid a linefrom the North Staffordshire Railway's Churnet Valley Line at to the hospital site. Brown's used a small 0-4-0Tank engine called Weaver to transport both men and materials to the construction site.
Operation
Upon completion of the hospital in 1899, Staffordshire County Council took over the line and converted it to an electrically powered tramway, an overhead wire system was erected and the electricity, operated at 220 voltDC, was supplied from the hospital boiler house. Once electrification work was completed, in 1903, a new platform was constructed at Leek Brook station on the down Churnet Valley line to allow passengers to alight from NSR trains and cross the platform to use the tramway to visit the hospital. The council purchased an electric locomotive from Wolverhampton and an old London horse tram was converted into a passenger coach; both vehicles were painted with the letters SCC to indicate their ownership by the county council. Although a passenger service was supplied, the principal function of the tramway was the supply of coal to the boiler house. About was required each month, the NSR would deliver loaded wagons of coal to a siding at Leek Brook and the tram engine would propel the wagons, two at a time, to the boiler house with the empty wagons being returned to Leek Brook for collection. After the First World War with the growth in bus and private car transport, there was a decline in passengers using the tramway so passenger services were discontinued in the 1920s. The coal traffic however continued until December 1954 when delivery by road took over and the line was closed and by May 1957 the line had been lifted.
Route
From the platform at Leek Brook, the tramway swung to the right alongside the exchange sidings from the NSR. Railway engines were not allowed further than these sidings under the various agreements between the NSR being encountered. The line then proceeded by way of a switchback arrangement to terminate at the rear of the main hospital building.
